The loft was really little more than a space beneath the roof where the old hermit might have stored a few provisions. She could not stand, or even sit, erect, and she crouched upon the bit of dusty flooring.
She was none too soon, for in a few seconds the boys rushed in, and then began a discussion as to whether it would be safe to take a plank up from the floor to look beneath it for hidden treasure.
"You oughtn't to do that," said Jack Tiverton, "somebody might arrest you, or all of us, if folks found out we did it."
"Arrest us for spoiling a floor in this old hut!" cried an older boy. "I wonder you don't think the old hermit might holler if he heard us pull up a plank!"
"Well," said Jack stoutly, "you'd be as scared as I would if he did holler!"
"You're a small boy, Jack, and easily scared," was the taunting reply.
"Well, pull up a plank, and see what happens. I dare you to!" cried Jack.
"Here goes then!" said the older boy, and catching hold of a plank that had rotted at one end, he pulled it up.
"Oh, let it alone!" groaned a boy in a farther corner of the room, in an attempt to imitate an old voice.
"Oh, let it alone!" came in exactly the same voice from the loft.